This paper provides a metaphysical framework which enables the possibility of the hypostatic union. More specifically, social ontology will be used to philosophically ground the distinction between nature or substance on the one hand, and person on the other hand, which is crucial to that debate. There are some historical precedents for a juridical approach in christological debates, but the main sections develop a systematic metaphysical account. Relying on a generic version of dispositional realism, and the distinction between the ability (...) space and the liberty space of a person, a person is the locus or nexus of contingent activations of alternative possibilities. This is distinct from the set or range of alternative possibilities open to a person. Persons can therefore function as artificial persons, paradigmatically exemplified in sovereign states. Extending that framework to the supernatural level enables the possibility of a divine person uniting a divine and a human nature. (shrink)

Orientalism in Louis XIV's France presents a history of Oriental studies in seventeenth-century France, mapping the place within the intellectual culture of the period that was given to studies of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Chinese texts, as well as writings on Mughal India.

"Marin's admiration (in both seventeenth-century senses) for the word made flesh, and hence the word made power, is what makes this book both fascinating and disturbing." -- Times Literary Supplement A wicked queen orders the palace cook to kill her grandchildren and serve them up for dinner -- "in a sauce Robert." But as any good cook knows, this sauce is properly served with game, not domestic animals. Does the ogress transgress? Perhaps, but the cook breaks the rules as well. (...) Deceiving his mistress, he rescues the children and instead serves goat and lamb. In this provocative volume, Louis Marin treats a subject to which some of the most exciting literary criticism has been devoted: the body as represented in text and image. From fairy tales to biblical narrative, from the divine body in the eucharist to the body of Louis XIV as described in his physicians' journals, Marin focuses on the peculiar relationship between verbal and oral functions--speaking and eating, boasting and gluttony, lying and cannibalism. Drawing on the methodologies of semiology, philosophy of language, and literary and art criticism, Marin explores works by Rabelais, La Fontaine, Perrault, and the Logic of Port-Royal. Throughout, he is concerned with the conceptualization of desire and pleasure, justice and force, natural violence and political power -- and questions their ideological as well as their symbolic bases. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to examine the extent of the critiques that La Beaumelle gives to Voltaire in the annotated edition of the Siècle de Louis XIV, published in 1753, and his response in the Supplément au Siècle de Louis XIV, published a few months later. This, on the other hand, sheds some light on a number of tensions in the Voltaire’s historiographical project. It is shown that in the historical and historiographical works of the philosopher, (...) there are different methodology criteria and that the joint between them is problematic. (shrink)

This article addresses a peculiar form of marginalization in that the marginalized text it discusses originates not in the margin but at the very center of political power. Generally ignored, sometimes quoted as an illustration, Louis XIV's Mémoires for the Instruction of the Dauphin is today rarely read and even more rarely submitted to close reading. The article discusses the reasons for this marginalization and why the text deserves more scholarly attention, including the thorny question what exactly it would (...) mean to take it seriously. I suggest that the oscillating focus of the Mémoires—shifting between the labor of state-craft and the enchantment of royal mastery, between expert analysis and god-given intuition, between (modern) instrumentalism and a (pre-modern) logic of royal glory—makes it a unique historical source for exploring constitutive tensions at the heart of absolutism. (shrink)

L’ouvrage, qui est la version remaniée d’une thèse soutenue à l’EHESS en 2017, porte sur l’étude de la faveur au féminin sous les règnes de Henri IV et de Louis XIV. L’autrice récuse le terme de favorite « qui s’il est souvent utilisé dans les biographies ne l’est que rarement dans les sources et recouvre alors des réalités souvent éloignées » du propos (p. 15). À travers l’analyse de la figure des maîtresses royales, c’est d’abord une histoire du politique (...) et du pouvoir royal qui est au cœur... (shrink)

This book analyses the concept of scientific explanation developed by French disciples of Descartes in the period 1660-1700. Clarke examines the views of authors such as Malebranche and Rohault, as well as those of less well-known authors such as Cordemoy, Gadroys, Poisson and R'egis. These Cartesian natural philosophers developed an understanding of scientific explanation as necessarily hypothetical, and, while they contributed little to new scientific discoveries, they made a lasting contribution to our concept of explanation--generations of scientists in subsequent centuries (...) followed their lead. (shrink)

Robert Sauzet présente à partir d'un document inédit ­ le livre de raison d'un notaire nîmois du siècle de Louis XIV, Étienne Borrelly ­ la vie quotidienne d'une partie des Français. Ce manuscrit assure la richesse de l'ouvrage. En effet, le texte rédigé par Étienne Borrelly tout au long de sa vie devient vite, de simple livre de famille, un recueil traitant indifféremment de politique nationale ou internationale, d'événements locaux aussi divers que les intempéries météorologiques et...

Robert Sauzet présente à partir d'un document inédit ­ le livre de raison d'un notaire nîmois du siècle de Louis XIV, Étienne Borrelly ­ la vie quotidienne d'une partie des Français. Ce manuscrit assure la richesse de l'ouvrage. En effet, le texte rédigé par Étienne Borrelly tout au long de sa vie devient vite, de simple livre de famille, un recueil traitant indifféremment de politique nationale ou internationale, d'événements locaux aussi divers que les intempéries météorologiques et...

Robert Sauzet présente à partir d'un document inédit ­ le livre de raison d'un notaire nîmois du siècle de Louis XIV, Étienne Borrelly ­ la vie quotidienne d'une partie des Français. Ce manuscrit assure la richesse de l'ouvrage. En effet, le texte rédigé par Étienne Borrelly tout au long de sa vie devient vite, de simple livre de famille, un recueil traitant indifféremment de politique nationale ou internationale, d'événements locaux aussi divers que les intempéries météorologiques et ..

Taoism and Self Knowledge: The Chart for the Cultivation of Perfection. By Catherine Despeux. Translated by Jonathan Pettit. Sinica Leidensia, vol. 142. Leiden: Brill, 2018. Pp. xiv + 297. €125, $150.

In some respects this book can be considered as an elaboration of Clarke's earlier Descartes' Philosophy of Science. The latter work contains Clarke's analysis of the natural philosophy of Descartes with special attention to the role of experience and experiment in the formation and confirmation of theories. The present work focuses on the ways in which French philosophers and scientists tried to work out the general views of De l'Homme and the Principia during the period 1650-1700.

Ces dernières années, plusieurs travaux sur l’histoire des femmes s’intéressent à leur présence et à leurs rôles dans les domaines artistiques laissés de côté par les ouvrages généraux plus anciens. Pour autant, des thèmes sont encore à explorer en ce qui concerne le rôle de certaines dans ces secteurs pour la période moderne. C’est le cas de la musique, pour laquelle des éléments sur la présence féminine sont décelables à travers des ouvrages sur l’art musical de cette période. Ainsi, l’ouvr...